Conventional data storage arrays store host information on behalf of host computers. Some data storage arrays store data in file systems, i.e., hierarchical structures of directories, subdirectories, and files.
When there is change to a file on a data storage array (e.g., when data is added to a file), the array may update portions of an inode structure which identifies particular details of that file. For example, the array may update (i) an indirect block (IB) which stores addresses of blocks containing the data and (ii) block metadata (BMD) which stores a checksum of that IB. When the IB and BMD are later retrieved from secondary storage in order to locate the data of that file, the contents of the IB are evaluated against the checksum stored in the BMD to verify that the contents of the IB are good, i.e., to confirm that the contents of the IB are not corrupted.